Inhabiting Uncertainty

There’s always been a strange tension in our art form. On one hand, since at least the Golden Age of Magic, magicians have intentionally and frequently presented themselves in promotional material for their audiences, if not also in performance, as being either in league with or in conflict with supernatural forces. In most cases, though, audiences likely understood it to be a presentation of trickery rather than sorcery, since the performers billed themselves explicitly as magicians even while using supernatural imagery in their advertising. And if they did not present themselves as magicians but instead claimed genuine supernatural powers, folks such as Houdini would go after them. But if a show’s seemingly supernatural elements were so convincing that they left audiences questioning whether the performer truly did have supernatural powers, the ambiguity could definitely become part of the appeal or thrill. It was a delicate line, and in an age in which social media is the greatest exposer of magic, creating a skeptic out
of nearly everyone, I wondered if this ambiguity was actually even possible anymore. So when I heard that Rob Zabrecky’s show, Séance: The Board Awakens, was coming to town, I had to attend.